Jeff Chen notes: Hard to tell that Ian's a sports nut, yeah? There's only COSTAS, THE REBELS, TERRELL Davis... and TEAM SPORTS, of course. Thankfully ... more

Jeff Chen notes: Hard to tell that Ian's a sports nut, yeah? There's only COSTAS, THE REBELS, TERRELL Davis... and TEAM SPORTS, of course. Thankfully I like sports too. Even not being a Broncos fan, it wasn't too hard to pull out TERRELL's name. Poor NFL running backs have such a short career lifespan, often topping out before the age of 30. You have to cram a lot of big runs into a small number of years if you're ever going to become famous enough to make the NYT crossword! What, that's not your goal? Ridiculous.

I like the vibe of Ian's puzzles, skewing both more slangy and more sporty than average. I remember the first time one of the kids I work with saying YA HEARD? to me — I give a lot of knowing nods. I'm not sure if YA HEARD will stand the test of time a la WHAT UP G? or go the way of FO SHIZZLE, but for now it seems to be holding up all right.

I always appreciate the variety in Ian's themeless grids. He's always trying out something new, not content to fall into a pattern of using establish grid patterns. This one has so much interconnect it's hard to describe or even grok it all. Beautiful puzzle flow, a feng shui masterpiece, with each section having so many ways to break into it. And look at that intersection of FIREHOSES / RAP GROUPS / RUSSIAN MOB / DR SEUSS / BED HOP etc. That's just one area packed with all sorts of goodness.

I'm a bit mixed on BEDHOP, actually. As much as I enjoy nervously tittering at answers like SHTUP, there's a quaint indirectness with SHTUP, almost like something your grandma might say (at least my grandma, who is awesome). BEDHOP is so direct, so in your face IMO. A matter of taste, of course, but it feels a bit out of place to me in the NYT.

A little more glue than I'm used to in a Livengood themeless, what with both AMO and AMAT (with the same clue, even!) , OON, AZO, ETD, etc., but well worth the price of all the great stuff jam-packed in.